Toddler Time - Sharks!

This week marks my second to last Toddler Time. I am sad.I let my parents know that next week would be our last Toddler Time and I got a chorus of “whys.” It was really hard. Next week is going to suck.

Because it’s my last few weeks in Toddler Time, I’ve been trying to make them extra special for the kids and parents. Extra flannel boards, more singing, the works. This week I decided to do Sharks, based on some adorable flannels I saw during Flannel Friday’s Shark Week.

Stories and Flannels We Shared

Today’s story was The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark, told with flannels. I’ll be honest here, I totally stole the flannels from Anne over at ItsyBitsyMom. I couldn’t help it. Her shark and fish were just so ridiculously adorable, and I knew I couldn’t do anything cuter, so I stole them. Sorry Anne!! I even copied her idea to use a stamp pad for shading, and omg, it worked awesome. If I was going to continue doing flannels I’d dig out my stamp pads and shade all my flannels. It’s such a great idea. I could totally see combining the stamp pad shading with my puff paints (Anne embroiders her flannels which makes them double sided, and awesome, but I’m not that good with embroidery). 

Next up I used a modified version of Smiley Shark from Kim over at Destination Storytime. No one near us owned Smiley Shark so Kim’s idea of retelling Ruth Gallaway’s story was great. I modified it a bit more and used pieces from my magent story I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean. I actually had a little one who was in LOVE with the flannel board so I didn’t put pieces on the board as I retold this story, I acted it out with the pieces in my hands. It worked! :) (photo refernce is the I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean. For Smiley Shark I used my felt shark from above, the crab, the jelly fish, the octopus, a turtle, and the fish.)

Rhymes We Shared

We went a bit over our time today, what with the longer flannels, so we didn’t sing as much. Today we sang our Shaker Song Twice, Tiny Tim, and our hello/goodbye songs. That was it! But it worked. Sometimes we sing more, sometimes we sing less.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

Today was a learning day! I had parents who asked all kinds of questions which I LOVE so very much. It was exciting. 

• We talked about how to make flannel boards and flannel pieces, where to find patters, what kinds of books and/or stories work for flannels (anything!) and where to get the parts to make flannel boards. It was awesome. 
• We also talked about how to make shaker eggs at home, the different things to fill them and how to avoid choking hazards. I love when parents are interested in the processes of how a story time gets put together. 
• We also briefly touched on Phonological Awareness and how songs break down words into easy to understand syllables. The parents were much more excited about learning how to take Story Time home with them that I glossed over the typical tips and delved more into story time dynamics. 

Toddler Time - ABC's!

Since I only have 3 (counting this one) Toddler Time sessions left I wanted to make them really good ones. So I've been looking at doing fancier flannels and more interactive programs. I've been loving the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees people have made, so came up with a program to be able to make one!

Stories and Flannels We Shared
Today we read Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom! This isn't my favorite story (I know, everyone loves it), but the pictures are great and I wanted to make the tree, lol.
We used the Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom tree puppet to tell this story today. I've seen this a couple of times on Pinterest, and just love it so much. So I made one. :D It wasn't the easiest, but it definitely wasn't super hard. I did mess up making it though- I didn't make the trunk wide enough just using felt to fit around my hand. D'oh! So I ended up having to unglue it all and then attached a sock to the back of one side of the trunk to make my tree into a sock puppet. This worked really well, so it all worked out though! I purchased the dark brown felt and green felt from my local craft store and the foam for the coconuts from the dollar store, so the whole project cost me $2 in materials, and I have felt left over. I copied Lisa from Lisa's Library Land and used the templates from Making Learning Fun. She in turn got the idea from Twodaloo. My coconuts were cut using a 1 inch hole punch we have here at the library. Made my life SO much easier.
The foam coconuts work wonderfully since the kids can crumple them up and they just pop back into shape. And if they get lost- eh, they're foam.
I am going to try again (this time with my dad's help) to make the trunk just out of foam, so I bequeathed my sock puppet tree to a coworker.
I handed out some random letters to the kids and as we read the story they stuck the letters on the tree. Or rather since we're toddlers they stuck whatever letters they wanted on the tree whenever they felt like it, lol. :)

Rhymes We Shared
I also used this awesome rhyme from Storytime With Miss Tara called the Alpha-gator. She in turn found the idea on the Perry Public Library site. Can I saw how freaking awesome it is that we all share ideas like this? It is.
I used a gator puppet we have here at the library and the coconuts from the Chicka Tree. I had kids help me feed the gator and he "NOM NOM NOM NOM!"ed them as we read the letters. The kids LOVED feeding the gator and the parents got a kick out of the poem. It is rather adorable.
We also chanted the rhyme Emily shared on the Flannel Friday Facebook page about scarves. Found here.

Songs We Shared
Today we sang our usual Shaker Egg song from Jbrary today. The kids REALLY missed it from last week when we had to take a break because of my hip/leg pain. So I made sure to bring it back.We then sang the ABC's (of course), Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and Itsy Bitsy.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Singing the alphabet song is one way to introduce children to letters. Part of letter knowledge, one of the early literacy skills that helps children be ready to read in school, is knowing the names of letters. At first your child may not relate the letters they sing to the written letter. That's ok; this is a first step.
• You don’t need an alphabet book to talk about letters. With any book you are reading together, let your child look for the first letter or any of the letters in his or her name.
• Letter knowledge starts with seeing and recognizing shapes. A baby playing with a ball feels its roundness. Later that will mean a circle and then the letter O. Lots of letters use the circle shape. Others use triangle or other shapes. Researchers have found that children identify letters by their shapes. Playing and exploring are a part of learning how to read!

Toddler Time - Fruits and Berrries

Today's Toddler Time was all about fruits and berries! With strawberry and raspberry season upon us and blueberry season coming soon it seemed a perfect theme. :)

Stories We Shared
Our first story of the day was a classic - Jamberry by Bruce Degen. I'm sure I don't need to talk about how fun this story is.
Next up I read a favorite of mine, and one I've read before (and will read again) The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood. There are no words to explain how much I love this story. It's an all time favorite. (I even have it memorized, lol).

Flannels We Shared

Today I shared a flannel adapted from one I found at Mel's Desk, which in turn was adapted from one she found on Abby the Librarian's blog. If I had had time I think it would have been more fun to make 5 different types of berries/fruits to use with the flannel, but since I'm moonlighting in Adult and Teen services this summer my flannel making time is limited. So I just went with strawberries this week. I used animals from various other flannels I've made (the Giant Carrot and my farm animals- I love that cow) and they worked wonderfully. The mouse also made the perfect segue into reading The Little Mouse.

Rhymes We Shared
Today's rhyme was one that a fellow librarian shared on Facebook. Emily Lloyd wrote and shared this fun scarf activity poem and it was a huge hit.

     Things we can do with our Scarves
     We can wave them way up high
     We can pretend they're capes and fly [like a superhero]
     We can make believe they're hair [drape scarf on head, looking silly]
     We can throw them in the air
     We can swish them side to side
     We can use our scarves to hide [drape scarf entirely over head, like ghost]
     We can make them very small [ball up scarf]
     We can let them gently fall [drop scarf to ground]

We also sang our shaker song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and Itsy Bitsy. :)

Early Literacy Tips Shared

• Rhyming is one of the things that children learn that lets them hear that words are made of smaller parts. By reading rhyming books or singing rhyming songs with your child, you are helping to build their phonological awareness. Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.
• Counting is one the of learning concepts which support your child's background knowledge.
• Singing slows down language and helps children hear the different sounds that make up words. Singing also develops an awareness of rhythm and syllables

Toddler Time - Balloons!

Today's Toddler Time was on my birthday! Yay! I was super excited to plan a Toddler Time for my birthday. Because it was my birthday, I decided that today's program would focus on the learning concept of play. Play is so important for children learning to read and relate to the world around them.

Stories We Shared
Today we read an adorable book I had InterLibrary Loaned: The Blue Balloon by Mick Inkpen. It's about a balloon a little boy finds that does all kinds of crazy things, from never popping, to disappearing and reappearing square, to taking a space adventure. The book is simple and engaging.

Flannels We Shared
Today's flannel was a counting rhyme that I found on Sunflower Storytime.
     Four Balloons
     Four balloons up in the sky
     See them flying way up high?
     If one of those balloons should happen to POP!
     Only 3 balloons will be left floating up top! (2..1..)

Rhymes We Shared
As usual we sang our Shaker Song today. Since we were playing I did not add any additional songs or rhymes, but we did some activities, outlined below.

Activities We Shared
Since today was a special Balloon program I brought in 67 assorted balloons for us to play with! I had blown them up the previous night, taking care not to blow them up fully so they were extremely hard to pop.
With the balloons we practiced throwing them, naming the colors, catching them, and kicking them. We also found colors that matched and colors that were almost the same (light and dark blue) but didn't quite match.
Then, I brought out the parachutes. Both of them. The little one and the enormous one. They had SO much fun. We popped the balloons like popcorn, moved the parachutes fast & slow, hard & gentle. They absolutely loved it. So much that we forfeit our usual play time for more parachute and balloon play. This was a huge hit with everyone.
We also only had one balloon casualty, and it didn't pop, but instead just slowly fizzled out.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Play with your children is super important as they grow! It is one of the primary ways young children learn about how the world works.
• Play helps children practice putting their thoughts into words
• Play helps children think symbolically. That this item stands for this thing, which helps them understand that words can stand for real objects or experiences. (We experienced this when we talked about how the balloons were like popcorn cooking and a little one excitedly yelled that the balloons were like coffee in the machine.)
• Play is how children practice becoming adults and process what they see and hear everyday.

Toddler Time - Camping

Today's Toddler Time's theme comes from a request I had last week. Last week one of the little boys that attended asked if I could do a camping theme for him. I said of course and so camping it is!

Stories We Shared
Normally I don't like using popular media books in story time, but the first story this week was cute and I just couldn't resist. We read Maisy Goes Camping first today. It's a super cute one where Maisy and all her friends (including Eddie the Elephant) try to fit in a tent together. It was a definite hit.

Next up was another "can we fit" style book. One Dog Canoe was a new one for me, but I rather liked it.

Flannels We Shared
I brought out a slightly older, but perfect flannel for today's Toddler Time. I dug into my files and brought back the 3(5) Hungry Ants flannel. Of course, our favorite part is the sneezing ants. When we got to the pepper we would take an ant and as we sneezed I would toss an ant into the air. It always produces giggles.

Rhymes We Shared
We sang two rhymes today! (In addition to our usual opening song and clos
ing songs.) First up we sang Ten Little Marshmallows. I saw this somewhere in the past few weeks, but I didn't bookmark it so cannot give credit. My apologies! If you know where I found it, please comment!
We also sang 10 Little Campers which I found on Earlylit.net and comes from Beth Grai, at the Independence (MI) Township Library. Of course we sang Shake Your Shaker and Twinkle Twinkle as well. :)
     10 Little Marshmallows
     One little, two little, three, little marshmallows
     Four little, five little, six little marshmallows
     Seven little, eight little, nine little marshmallows
     Ten marshmallows in my mouth!

     Ten Little Campers
     Ten little campers putting up their tent.
(Put finger tips of fingers together forming tent roof)
     Ten little campers close the vents.
(Intertwine fingers together to signify closure)
     Ten little campers make a ring.
(Form circle putting tips of fingers together and thumbs together)
     Ten little campers start to sing.
(Cup hands to mouth)
     Ten little campers around the fire.
(Form circle putting tips of fingers together again)
     Ten little campers dance till they tire.
(Put all ten fingers up in the air and dance them around)
     Ten little campers close their tent up tight.
(Intertwine fingers together again to signify closure)
     Ten little campers say good-night.
(Wave good-night with both hands)

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Introducing your child to songs, rhymes and books is a great way to help your child expand his/her vocabulary since books and rhymes often contain a larger variety of words then what we typically use in conversation.
• Rhymes are fun to sing and say with your child. Because they rhyme, they also help children develop phonological awareness, an important skill for later reading when they try to sound out words

Toddler Time - At The Beach!

Today's Toddler Time was all about the beach! It's summer (finally, even if I don't like the hot), and the beach is such a perfect theme for summer.

Books We Shared
This week we read two of my absolute favorite books. First I had a show and read version of I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry. OMG, I love this story so much. It's a perfect story for a show and read/show and tell as well.

Next up we read A Beach Tail by Karen Lynn Williams. I have so much love for the illustrations in this book. They are so detailed and have so much life.

Flannels We Shared
I turned I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean into a show and read story this week. As I read the story I placed the pieces on a magnet board. They LOVED this so much, we ended up doing it three times. The first time I read the book and placed the pieces, the next two times we just placed the pieces. I used the patterns from KidzClub which are adorable and free.

We also had a flannel game based off the Little Bird game using pails and a little tiny whale (He's adorable if I do say so myself.) which I found on the Fun With Friends at Storytime blog, and a counting rhyme with shells.
     Little Whale
     Little Whale, Little Whale
     Are you in the [color] pail?

     3 Little Seashells
     3 little seashells all pearly new,
     Swish! went the waves and then there were two.
     2 little seashells lying in the sun,
     Swish went the waves, and then there was one.
     1 little seashell lying all alone,
     I picked it up and took it home!

Rhymes We Shared

As usual we sang our shaker song from Jbrary and our closing song of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The Shaker Song continues to be a favorie, and no one (grown ups) has gotten bored with it yet!

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Children learn language by listening. They learn new words and absorb general knowledge about the world around them. Talking to your child can help them develop vocabulary. Stretch your child's vocabulary by repeating what they say and adding new words. "You want a banana? That's a healthily choice."
• Singing slows down language and helps children hear the different sounds that make up words. Singing also develops an awareness of rhythm and syllables.

Toddler Time - Clap and Stomp

I felt the need to do lots of singing and moving around for today's story time, so we had a Clapping and Stomping program today.

Stories We Shared

Today we read a favorite of mine: Stop Snoring Bernard! by Zachariah O'Hara. I LOVE this book so much. Love, love, love. Bernard is adorable and snoring is so much fun. If you have an active group getting them to yell "STOP SNORING BERNARD!" with you is so much fun.

Flannels We Shared

Our flannel today was "Who Said Moo?" from the Clueless Librarian. They loved my cow and horse the most. (Note: chicken feet are hard!)

Rhymes We Shared

Today we sang a lot. A LOT. We started out with If You're Happy and You Know It (just clapping, stomping, and yelling hooray), which we sung twice, of course. Then we moved onto Old MacDonald Had a Farm (cow, pig, and sheep). And of course, our favorite (I do love this too) Shaker Song (with all the verses!) and a new shaker song: Shake It to the East (by guess who!), followed by Twinkle Twinkle.

     Shake It to the East

     Shake it to the east
     Shake it to the west
     Shake it all around
     and then you take a rest
     Shake your shakers up
     Shake your shakers down
     Shake it, shake it, shake it,
     and then you settle down.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Activities like clapping and stomping help a child to build motor skills and boost coordination!
• Introducing your child to songs, rhymes, and books is a great way to help your child expand his or her vocabulary since books and rhymes often contain a larger variety of words than what we typically use in conversation.

Toddler Time - Mud and Dirt

Today's story time was all about dirt and mud. Seemed fitting after the ridiculous amount of rain we've been getting!

Stories We Shared

Our first story of the day was UnderGround by Denise Fleming. I have so much love for this story it isn't funny.

Our second story is more appropriate for early spring, but I love it so we read it anyway. Mud by Ray.

Flannels We Shared

What goes with mud better than pigs? Nothing! Today's flannel was from Sunflower Storytime.

     Five little pigs rolled in the mud
     Squishy, squashy, felt so good.
     The farmer took one piggy out.
     ‘Oink, Oink, oink,’ the pig did shout!

           4,3,2,1

     No little pigs rolled in the mud.
     They all looked so clean and good.
     The farmer turned his back and then,
     Those pigs rolled in the mud again.

 Note: because my kids are so young we only used 3 piggies.

Rhymes We Shared

Today we sang our Shaker Song, but added the rest of the verses to it. Our verses aren't in the same order as Jbrary's, mostly because I had shortened the song to begin with, but we were SUPER excited over this song. We sang it 6 times. Six times. Yes, six. Then we played with our shakers, taking turns deciding where/how we would shake them. Always a huge hit.

     Shake Your Shaker
     Shake your shaker in the air
     Shake it here, shake it there
     Shake your shaker in the air
     Shake your shaker

     Shake it up and shake it down
     Shake your shaker on the ground
     Shake it up and shake it down
     Shake your shaker

     Shake it fast and shake it slow
     Shake it stop, shake it go
     Shake it fast and shake it slow
     Shake your shaker

     Shake it high and shake it low
     Shake it yes, shake it no
     Shake it high and shake it low
     Shake your shakers

We closed with Eensy Weensy and Twinkle Twinkle as is becoming our habit lately.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

Don't forget, talking with your child helps them learn about the world around them. As children listen to spoken language they learn new words and what they mean while gaining important knowledge about the world around them.

Toddler Time - Purple

Still going strong in our color series today! We're almost done though. I think we're all just a little relieved. The 7 week series was ambitious and interesting, but we're all getting a little bored. If I do a series like this again (IF), I'll limit it to 3 weeks. Today's theme was purple!

Stories We Shared

Today we read Purple Little Bird. I've seen some adaptations of this in flannel, and I would love to do that some day, but the story is adorable on its own.

Flannels We Shared

Once again we did our Little Bird flannel. The kids love matching our birds to their nests, but are pretty much done with the rhyme. We now just ask which bird goes with which nest and play with them. Which works!

Rhymes We Shared

Our first song of the day was We Love Purple. I found this one on Preschool Express. It's from Heather McPhail. It is fun, but it will get stuck in your head!

     We love purple, we love purple.
     Yes, we do.  Yes, we do.
     Purple grapes and eggplant,
     Purple plums and grape juice,
     Just for me, just for you.

We also played a game today. We played a scavenger hunt style game where I had taped purple crayons all over the program room and while we sang the Color Chorus from Teaching Mama. My kids found purple crayons on the wall and put them in my basket. Totally adorable.

     If you see a purple crayon, pick it up.

     If you see a purple crayon, pick it up.

     Stand and wiggle, give a SHOUT!

     If you see a purple crayon, pick it up!

Of course we sang the Shaker Song, Eensy Weensy, and Twinke Twinkle Little Star today.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared

• Babies can begin to associate words with objects and people as early as 6 months. Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly.

Toddler Time - Green

Today was the fourth week of my color series, so our color was green. I had a parent tell me that I do a wonderful job and how much her toddler loves coming, so I think that's some good feeback. :) It's always super nice to hear that I'm doing something good.

Stories We Shared:

Today we read two stories about green. The first was Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (super fitting). This is perfect for Toddler Time. PERFECT. Each page has a color of green and a matching illustration. We didn't read every page, but the pages we did read fascinated the toddlers. Our second book was a big book version of Jump Frog Jump by Robert Kalan. This is another classic, and the big book format was awesome.

Flannels We Shared:
Since today was green I had to sing Five Green and Speckled Frogs. I just had to. And Five Green and Speckled Frogs is fantastic for flannels, so I made five flannel frogs to go along. (my photo is a little blurry, it doesn't do my frogs justice.)

Rhymes We Shared:
It's the middle of my color series, so we repeated the same rhymes from before. We shook our shakers to Shake Your Shaker from Jbrary, waved our scarves to De Colores by Raffi, and twinkled our scarves, fingers, and shakers to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• Parents, you may have noticed that we're repeating a lot recently. This is because research shows that repetition helps young children form and maintain connections in their brain and nervous systems. 
• Color and shape are among the first concepts babies learn. Babies can begin to associate words with objects and people as early as 6 months. Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly. (I try have my tips memorized, but for some reason even though I've been using these tips for a couple of weeks I lost this one halfway through and had to dig out my notes. It was pretty funny. I just wish my parents had been able to complete my tip for me, that would have been awesome!)

Toddler Time - Yellow

Today was week 3 in my color series! Today we focused on the color yellow. :) Appropriate since this has been a dreary rainy vacation week, and I needed a little yellow to brighten things up.

Stories We Shared:

Since today was all about yellow we read books about ducks and construction! Our first book was Job Site by Nathan Clement. Perfect for short attention spans, but with a good vocabulary. Next up was a book that we didn't exactly read, but went with our felt song- Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates. And we wrapped everything up with Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa, which I really like, but I think went way over the heads of my toddlers. :)

Flannels We Shared:
Just like the previous two weeks we did our Little Bird flannel game. Color matching is a big hit with the kids in my group, so this is a fun game for them all. (Click the link above to check out the felt board.)
Then we sang Five Little Ducks, looked at the pictures in the book above, and used my simple felt board to count down as we sang. Five Little Ducks isn't my favorite song, but it's a classic.

Rhymes We Shared:
It's the middle of my color series, so we repeated the same rhymes from before. We shook our shakers to Shake Your Shaker from Jbrary, waved our scarves to De Colores by Raffi, and twinkled our scarves, fingers, and shakers to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• Research shows that repetition helps young children form and maintain connections in their brain and nervous systems. 
• Color and shape are among the first concepts babies learn. Babies can begin to associate words with objects and people as early as 6 months. Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly. 

Toddler Time - Orange!

This was week two of my color series! Last week we read about the color red, this week we're doing orange! Last week was the first of this color series. Hopefully it works well.

Stories We Shared:
Due to a couple of factors we only read one story today. Everyone had so much energy that I focused on more movement, and I had no one to cover the Children's Desk so I had to cut Toddler Time short today.
We read Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear by Emily Gravett today. It's a nice short book with fun illustrations. It worked perfectly for my distracted group today.

Flannels We Shared:
Again this week we did the Little Bird flannel from last week. We'll be repeating this one for the next few weeks. (To see my flannel for this one check out the link above.) Little Bird is a great color learning rhyme.
     Little Bird
     Little Bird you've flown so far,
     And now it's time to rest.
     Fly back and sleep in your
        RED nest!
     Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

I also wanted a flannel STORY this week. I went looking for either a good flannel story of The Carrot Seed (not my favorite because the book is teeny) or a version of The Turnip. I ended up finding an awesome version from an old Flannel Friday post by Miss Mary Liberry talking about the story The Great Big Turnip from The Bilingual Book of Rhymes, Songs, Stories, and Fingerplays. It's  a shorter story with only 4 animals, so kept the attention of my toddlers. Little Bear discovers something orange (in the original purple) in the ground and wants to take it to Momma Bear. She gets help from Squirrel, Skunk, and Mouse and they bring it to Momma Bear who identifies the veggie and makes soup!

I'd like to send a HUGE shout out to the wonderful librarians at the Scarborough Public Library for scanning the story and emailing it to me the day before my program! They totally made my day.

Rhymes We Shared:
Since I'm focusing on a lot of repetition for this color series we again sung Shake Your Shaker by Jbrary. It's fun, it's easy to sing, and it's shakers! Win all around.
Shake Your Shaker
     Tune: London Bridge
     Shake your shaker in the air
     Shake it here, shake it there
     Shake your shaker in the air
     Shake your shaker

     Shake it up and shake it down
     Shake your shaker on the ground
     Shake it up and shake it down
     Shake your shaker

We also sung Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and danced with our scarves to De Colores by Raffi again today. Both are always a hit.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:
Again, since I'm doing repetition for this series my tips were repeated from last week.

• Research shows that repetition helps young children form and maintain connections in their brain and nervous systems. 
• Color and shape are among the first concepts babies learn. Babies can begin to associate words with objects and people as early as 6 months. Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly. 

Toddler Time - Red

Today's Toddler Time kicks off something new I'm trying. I'm starting small "units" or as I'm calling them to the parents "series." Each series is going to tie together several weeks of programming. I'm starting with a Colors Series. For 6 weeks we'll focus on a specific color and then on the 7th week we'll do a rainbow Toddler Time tying all the previous weeks together. Other series ideas I have planned for the future are "Things That Go," "Animals," and possibly "Shapes." It's just something to keep me motivated and investigating new opportunities for Toddler Time.

Books We Shared:

Our first book is a very sweet and simple story. Red Sled by Patricia Thomas is a rhyming story about a young boy and his dad who take a
late night sled ride. This is perfect for short attention spans since each page has no more than 4 rhyming words on it.

Our second story is one of my absolute favorites. So much that I have the book memorized, lol. It isn't a new story by any means, but to me it's a classic story time book. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, And the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey and Don Wood is adorable and has wonderful illustrations.

Flannels We Shared:
For the Colors Series we'll be repeating the same flannel every week. I want the kids to recognize the game/flannel and play with me every week. I'll probably add other flannels, but I want to have some aspects that are the same for all 7 weeks of the series. I found this flannel game over on Hushlander's blog. Little Bird is a relatively easy game for kids and the rhyme is an easy one to remember.

     Little Bird
     Little Bird you've flown so far,
     And now it's time to rest.
     Fly back and sleep in your
        RED nest!
     Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue,
     Purple

Action Rhymes We Shared:
We did three action activities today! Our first was a fun shaker song from Jbrary. We only sang the first two stanzas of the song since we have a young group that loses focus with long songs, but the two were plenty for us. They loved the song. And it's an easy one that I can remember! :)

    

 Shake Your Shaker

     Tune: London Bridge

     Shake your shaker in the air

     Shake it here, shake it there

     Shake your shaker in the air

     Shake your shaker

     Shake it up and shake it down

     Shake your shaker on the ground

     Shake it up and shake it down

     Shake your shaker

Our second movement activity was to dance with scarves to Raffi's De Coloroes. While the music played and the kids danced and I asked them to do specific actions with their scarves. We waved them up & down, side to side, high & low, over our heads & toes, in circles, behind us, and anything we could think of. They always love this type of activity so it was a big hit.
Finally we finished up with a rousing rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with our shakers, scarves, and twinkled with our hands.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• Color and shape are among the first concepts babies learn. Babies can begin to associate words with objects and people as early as 6 months. Parents who identify the color of objects and frequently repeat this concept will find that their toddlers will start to recognize color names quickly. 
• Rhyming breaks down words into easy to understand syllables.
• We had some newcomers to Toddler Time today as well, so before we began we had a discussion of how children may not participate at first, but they will learn from their grownup and from watching their grownup participate. This is something I say at the beginning of every Toddler Time, but this dad was new so we had a nice dialog going. 

Toddler Time - Socks and Shoes

Today's Toddler Time was all about Socks and Shoes (you'll note there's a missing week in here, last week the toddlers wer so full of energy that we skipped "normal" Toddler Time and just had free play).

Books We Shared:

A Pair of Socks by Stuart J. Murphy, illustrated by Lois Ehlert was our first story. This was a perfect story for Toddler Time. Minimal text, bright picutes, the works.
Our second story was Whose Shoes? by Stephen R. Swinburne. We didn't read the whole story with this one, just the end part where the story asks "Whose Shoes?" and shows a picute of a person's feet. The next picture is a full picture of the person. This one is good for recognizing uniforms and answering questions. My kids are super young, so of course they didn't answer many questions, but they liked looking at the pictures anyway.

Flannels We Shared:
Today's flannel was a sock matching game. I got the poem I sang from A Year Full of Themes by Teacher Created Resources. I said the poem and had the children try to find my matching sock from the pile in front of me. The Sock Matching game originally came from Miss Mary Liberry's blog.

     Sock Pairs
     I have two feet on which I walk,

     But I can only find one sock!

     Here's a Sock I like to wear,

     But I need a matching pair.

     Bring one up so we can see,

     If it matches perfectly!

Movement Activities We Shared:Our first movement activity is one that I keep going back to- scarf dancing. The toddlers love playing with the scarves and of course dancing and playing with scarves builds motor skills and coordination.

This time we danced to Shoes sung by Wayne From Maine. I love Wayne From Maine. His songs are so much fun and he has enormous energy. (He's also a fantastic live show if you are in the New England Area!) 

The second movement activity was the activity rhyme This is What My Feet Can Do which I found on the Sunflower Storytime blog, and they give credit to the ACLA Youth Services blog. This is an adorable song and we sang it twice.

     This is What My Feet Can Do

     This is what my feet can do, feet can do, feet can do.

     This is what my feet can do

     Can you do it too?

     Let your feet go hop, hop, hop; hop, hop, hop; hop, hop, hop

     Let your feet go hop, hop, hop

     All around the room.

Jump; tiptoe, sit - Quietly instead of All around the room

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• In today’s story time, we’ll be exploring shoes and socks. Most people don’t think of clothes as a learning tool for young children.  However, if you think about it, clothes are a perfect medium for parents to use to introduce, size, color, number and purpose to young children. 
• Sorting between colors helps children with color recognition. Sorting also gives children practice in recognizing likes and differences, size and function. A fun home activity would be to have your child help sort the family’s socks. You can start off sorting first by color, then by size and then by similarities. 
• Rhymes and games like this one help a child to develop their listening skills and to learn to follow directions. With activities like jumping and hopping we’re also helping to develop coordination and muscle strength.
• Matching a person's shoes to their uniform can help a child develop Self Awareness, the idea that one is an individual and possesses unique qualities

Wow. I didn't realize I had snuck in so many tips! The parents aren't giving me funny looks anymore, so they're hopefully working.

Toddler Time - Colors!

*I'm going to try a new format today. I just don't have time to write up the whole post, as much as I would like to, so I'm going to write up a summary/outline style instead. Hopefully it works since I've been trying to squeeze in posts when I could and posting things waay late.

Today's Toddler Time was all about COLORS!
After our Hello Song we talked about how colors are everywhere and an easy concept to explore at home. That getting dressed or narrating every day activities is perfect for sharing colors with children.

Books We Shared:

We have 5 board books of Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh, so I was happy to share this story.
I really liked having multiples of the story for parents to share with their child and wish we had more.
I've seen flannel stories of this and think it is riduculously adorable, but don't think it would work with my young group.

My Crayons Talk by Patricia Hubbard was our second story. The kids weren't as into this, I think it was a little too old for them, but they liked seeing the pictures and saying the colors together.

Flannels We Shared:
I brougth out the Little Mouse flannel again this week. They had so much fun last week I watned to give them the opportunity to play the game again.

Movement Activities We Shared:

In addition to free play we had two movement activies this week. Our first was scarf dancing. We LOVE scarves and scarf dancing gives children a chance to work off some energy and also build motor skills. We danced to Des Colores sung by Raffi today.

Our second movement activity was a poem I found on Everything Preschool called The Color That I See. Of course my group is a little young, so everyone stood up and did every activity, but they had fun, and I totally expected it. :)

     The Color That I See
     _____, _____is the color that I see.
     If you’re wearing _____, then show it to me!
     Stand up, turn around.
     Show me your _____, then sit back down!

We repeated this with 4 or 5 colors, then started with socks, shoes, pants, and so on. It was cute watching the children try to figure out if they had on the colors they needed, then deciding that they didn't care and standing up anyway.

Early Literacy Tips We Shared:

• Colors are everywhere in our world and this is a easy concept to explore with your child. When you do an activity with your child, comment about the colors you are using. Getting dressed is an easy opportunity for this. Say the colors of your child’s clothing as you get dressed together. “Today our shirt is GREEN.” Learning to identify colors is used in many different ways in learning. From science to math to reading colors are everywhere!
• Colors are so much fun, and they are everywhere. On your walk back to the car today, try out a color walk. Identify different colors in our town as you walk by them. See a blue car? Point it out to your child! Is there a purple flower on the wall? Bring it to your child’s attention. See if they can notice colors as well.

Home Activity
Take your child on a Color Hunt! Go for a walk around the house and hunt for things that are a specific color. Try and find all the things that are RED, YELLOW, GREEN or any color!

Toddler Time - Spatial Concepts

Today I decided to try something different. I decided I was going to do a Toddler Time about spatial concepts: up, down, behind, under, etc.
We started off by singing our usual opening song "We Clap and Sing Hello" and even though this is only the second week (last week was yet another snow storm and I canceled) the kids clapped along with the song. Yay!

Back to Toddlers

It's back to Toddler Time for me. I'm in a new position at a new library and running a brand new story time. This story time is for toddlers aged 18 months to 3 years. Though I seem to be getting a lot of VERY young toddlers hovering around a year old. So I've had to do some adapting to my programs. It's been a fun learning experience so far. Not that I've done many! Between the weather up here in Maine (yay snow?) and getting super sick I've only held two actual programs. This is the first program I held, and it definitely needs some work as I go along with the kids I have. It's a learning adventure. :)

Since it has been so ridiculously cold I decided to do a COLD theme for Toddler Time. The themes are more for me then the kids and I don't stay strictly on them, but I find they help me organize my thoughts better. Since I love them, I'm using the same opening and closing songs (Clap and Sing Hello and We Wave Goodbye Like This). They're perfect for Toddlers.

Toddler Time format

I'm working on a new format for my Toddler story times.  This is the first time I've done a toddler program, my previous library only offered programs for 3+ when I did programming.  When it was finally allowed I had been moved out of children's programming.  So as I go along I am learning and experimenting.

Last session I did:
Opening rhyme
Book
Poem/fingerplay
Book
Poem/fingerplay
Play time

As I ran the program I was continually researching, reading blogs, and seeing what others did in their programs.  I also offered a survey asking what parents thought at the end of the program.  Unfortunately, I didn't get as many suggestions as I hoped from that.  But, I do think I've picked up some good ideas from other story timers.  So I'm changing how I do things.  I'll see how it goes and tweak things for the fall.

My new format will be:
Welcome songs & announcements
Intro song
Repeat rhyme (a rhyme we will repeat for 3 weeks)
Book
Shake my sillies out (Raffi)
Rhyme
Book
Flannel
Rotating nursery action rhyme (we will cycle through 4 different rhymes, 1 a week)
Goodbye song
Play time

I'm hoping that this new format will work out well.

*Songs/rhymes will be on a separate post or page, when I'm not using my tablet and have full blogger functionality.